M A N U RES. 



53 



When we look around upon the old settled and long cultivated 

 portions of this country, and reflect upon what they were in the 

 days of our fathers, we cannot but notice an alarming change. 

 The soil has experienced a wonderful degeneration — it has lost its 

 fertility. It has been tilled — it has been manured — it has been 

 watered with the rains and dews of heaven, and with the sweat of 

 toil, but its productiveness is gone — or as the owner says, it is 

 worn out. But the land does not wear out. Some radical change 

 has taken place which unfits it for the production of the crops it 

 once bore, or any other. Here luxuriant crops of wheat once 

 grew, there tobacco and there cotton were raised in abundance, but 

 now the impoverished soil refuses a return. And what is the 

 cause? This we will attempt briefly to elucidate. 



When a portion of any plant is burned, the greater part disap- 

 pears; a small portion of ash only being left. The quantity left 

 by some plants is greater than that left by others, and the differ- 

 ent parts of the same plant leave unequal quantities, and in all 

 cases the residue is small when compared with the bulk of the 

 plant. This will be evident from the following table: 



Quantity of ash in 100 lbs. of 



Wheat, 1 . 18 lbs 



" Straw, 3.51 ' 



Rye, 1.04 



" Straw, 2.79 



Oats, 



2.58 



" Straw, 5.74 



Barley, 2.35 



" Straw, 5.24 



Beans, 2 . 14 



" Straw, 3.12 



Peas, 2.46 



" Straw, 4.97 



Potatoe, 2 . 65 lbs. 



" leaf, 4.79 



Turnip, 7 . 05 



" leaf, 2.96 



Hay, 9.00 



Red Clover, 7,70 



Parsnip, 14.34 



" leaf, 15.76 



Elm wood, 1.88 



" leaf, 11.80 



Oak wood, 0.21 



" leaf, 4.50 



The above tables are quoted to show the quantities of ash left 

 after burning different plants, that the quantity is always very 

 small, varying from one to fifteen per cent, and that different parts 

 of the same plant give different quantities. The constituents of 

 this ash are substances with the most of which every one is fa- 

 miliar. Thpv are potash, soda, lime, magnesia, alumina, silica. 



